An installation for slicing whole loaves and subsequently packaging each sliced loaf in its entirety or in halves after splitting of the loaf that has been sliced in its entirety is generally known and is described as prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,743. In the case of said known installation the whole loaves coming out of the oven are first sliced and then packaged. If there is demand for packaged, sliced half loaves, a bakery worker takes up a position between the slicing device and the packaging device. The worker then manually removes half of a sliced loaf from the one conveyor path and subsequently places the half loaf on the other conveyor path in the same orientation as that of the half loaves that are being carried on that conveyor path to the place where the worker is positioned.
Manually taking hold of and turning round half a loaf and then placing it on another conveyor path can be performed only at very low speed, is expensive in view of the wage costs, and also constitutes an unappealing activity for the worker.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,743 therefore proposes—if there is demand for packed, sliced half loaves—first cutting a whole, unsliced loaf coming out of the oven into two halves using a single cutter blade, and then placing the two halves of the loaf one behind the other and conveying them to a slicing device, where the half loaves are then cut into slices. In order to ensure that the half loaves follow one another after the whole loaf has been cut in half, U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,743 discloses a positioning device with a horizontal turntable and with a centre guide, which forms an appropriate path for each half of the loaf that has been cut in two. The centre guide extends in line with the single cutter blade, viewed in the direction of conveyance of the loaves, and runs until above the turntable. If one of the loaf halves goes onto the turntable, that half is carried along and taken to the other conveyor path. In the process, that half of the loaf is rotated and ultimately lies in front of the other half of the loaf. A pushing element then carries the two halves to the slicing device, where the half loaves are cut into slices.
The installation according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,743 is not satisfactory. A particular disadvantage is that only half of the slicing capacity of the slicing device for slicing the bread is utilized. This is a particular disadvantage because in practice the slicing device is generally the limiting factor for the capacity of the entire slicing and packaging installation. Furthermore, slicing of the already halved loaves leads to an undesirably great loss of bread material.